The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 806 pages of information about The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808).

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 806 pages of information about The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808).

At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden.

I descended a little on the side of that delicious valley, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts) to think that this was all my own, that I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance, as completely as any lord of a manor in England.  I saw here abundance of cocoa-trees, orange and lemon, and citron-trees, but all wild, and few bearing any fruit; at least, not then:  however, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing.

I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home; and resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I knew was approaching.

In order to do this I gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each with me, I travelled homeward, and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home.

Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came home (so I must now call my tent, and my cave;) but before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruit, and the weight of the juice, having broken them, and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing:  as to the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few.

The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest.  But I was surprised, when coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gathered them, I found them all spread abroad, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured.  By this I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were I knew not.

However, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight, I took another course; for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand under.

When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasure on the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on that side of the water, and the wood; and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst part of the country.  Upon the whole, I began to consider of removing my habitation, and to look out for a place equally safe as where I now was situated, if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.